Our Story - Leave no one behind.
From early childhood, I saw my father following this code throughout his military service, serving the nation with pride.
Unfortunately, retirement hit hard and he was left behind in the journey of transition from the military to civil. In 1995, I was in my early years of graduation. I tried my little bit to help him, but could not do much. My brother and I were still studying. We didn’t have our own house, and the expenses were more than the pension he was getting. Getting a job became his top priority. His core training skills found no takers, while the majority offered security roles. He was distraught.
It took him more than five years to find a job matching his skills. His story is not alone. 9 out of 10 soldiers struggle after retirement..
In 2000, I joined the Army as a short-service officer.
Before leaving the service in 2005, I was doing my PG course at IIM, Lucknow, along with 45 other retiring officers. Retirement hit hard again. The majority of them had loans to repay, children’s higher education to take care of, and the need for a job was still unfulfilled. They were struggling without a proper transition support. That blew my mind.
I told myself, if there’s anything worse than the struggle of a soldier, then surely it’s the preventable struggle of a soldier. I shared this with my father.
"Leave no one behind." He said. and my life changed forever.
I stopped attending classes and started running places to find job leads for my batch-mates. I started by writing their resumes, interacted with the HR heads of more than eighty corporates, gave course presentations at public seminars, and went door to door with our course brochures.
We saw a windfall of placements. The Indian military veterans saw a new hope, and I began a new journey to help our soldiers.
Since then, I set up 4 companies, built a dozen products and platforms, and continued to help our military members as personal social responsibility.
Over the last 17 years, more than a lakh and a half soldiers have been impacted by our efforts through a veteran networking platform, an exclusive job portal, offline and online transition newsletters, orientation sessions, resume creation, and interview prep.
But, I realised that my efforts were not enough and that there was more to be done. And when my mentor, Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, committed a financial grant, my mission took the shape of a non-profit foundation, allowing us to raise our ambitions to solve this problem at scale.
This journey has just begun. We are committed to securing the second careers of those who secure us.
Jai Hind!
Capt Venkat Ramana Rao
Founder - Xainik
17 years
of personal mission is now a public mission.
Unflinching support
that improve the soldiers employability by stepping in where governments and businesses leave gaps.
Building partnerships
that bring people and resources across the globe to boost veteran employment.